Prison Reform
Nolan McCafferty, Aundre Dang,
Cole Grimsby
What problem did the movement
attempt to address?
The Prison reform attempted
to address the problem of the
conditions of prisons, the
punishment for crimes,
treatment of the mentally ill
and better institutions for them, and
imprisonment for debt.
Earlier forms of the Reform
● The use of prisons as a tool for confining and punishing
criminals evolved during the 1700s.
● Religious-minded reformers during that period set out to
improve the young American republic by creating public
schools and libraries.
● They also sought to aid fellow citizens in improving their
morals. At that time, a philosophy began to develop that
imprisoning criminals would not only protect society but
redeem sinful wrongdoers.
Chronology Of the Movement
● January 1st 1786: Advances in Punishment and
Reduction of Such.
● September 28th 1824: Juvenile Detention Centers.
● September 29th 1829: Police Reformation.
● October 18th 1857: Prison Husks, ships used to store
prisoners awaiting transport.
● January 1st 1870: Enoch Cobb Wines and Theodore
William Dwight, Wrote evaluations of flaws in the
prison system.
Solutions that the Movement Proposed
● Mentally ill inmates will receive help from hospitals
and will not have to suffer in the prisons
● Destroy the sense of "criminal community" and
encourage penance
● Create prison libraries, basic literacy (for Bible reading),
reduction of whipping and beating, commutation of
sentences, and separation of women, children and the
sick.
Setbacks and unintended consequences
Controversies of what the purpose of prison
was. For punishment or penitence?
1821 Auburn Prison went into lockdown and 80
of the men either committed suicide or had
mental breakdowns.
Important People
●
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Dorothea Dix, whose detailed accounts of conditions in prisons and
asylums resulted in improved conditions and the concept that the
deranged were mentally ill.
Dr. John Galt, a doctor at Eastern Lunatic Asylum, who revolutionized
the idea that the insane had dignity
William Ladd, whose leadership within the American Peace Society
ultimately gave improvements in the internal organizations for
collective security
Louis Dwight- founder of the Boston Prison Discipline Society
Juvenile Detention Centers
After the War of 1812, prisons for minors
began to be built called juvenile detention
centers. These were used to try and correct
child behaviors rather than just harbor
criminals. The first juvenile detention center
opened in 1824.
How Effective were the goals?
Dorothea Dix co-founded thirty-two mental
hospitals, a school for the blind, and many
nursing training facilities.
Most goals were met, women went to separate
prisons and children were sent to Juvenile
Detention Center. The Prison Reform was
pretty successful.
What the leaders said about it?
Dorothea Dix told the Massachusetts Legislature that the insane were
"confined in this Commonwealth in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens!
Chained, beaten with rods, lashed into obedience."
“While we diminish the stimulant of fear, we must increase to prisoners the
incitements of hope, in proportion as we extinguish the terrors of the law, we
should awaken and strengthen the control of the conscience.” -Dorothea Dix
“If you don't want to be beaten, imprisoned, mutilated, killed or tortured
then you shouldn't condone such behavior towards anyone, be they human or
not.” -Moby
Political Implications of the
movement
● States were faced with a decline number of mental
hospitals and a rising number of mentally ill in prisons.
● This results in higher costs. It also raises the moral
question that they are "ill" so should they be put in
prison.
What did the movement achieve
●
The prison reform movement improved prison conditions
●
Better facilities and institutions to handle certain offenders including the
mentally ill, and the abolishment of debtors' prisons
●
The construction of asylums for the deranged and mentally ill
●
The idea of separating men, women, and children into different prisons
Related historical events
● Penitentiary Act of 1779 in the UK
○ British Act of Parliament passed in 1779
which introduced state prisons for the first
time.
● The Society for the Improvement of Prison
Discipline, founded in 1816.
Related movements today
The US prisoners' movement, 1970-1978 - Howard Zinn
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●
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For people in prisons in the US, communication with the outside world was
difficult. Guards would tear up letters. Others would be intercepted and
read.
In 1978 the Supreme Court ruled that the news
media do not have guaranteed rights of access to
jails and prisons.
More towards the African-American race.
Reflections
Nolan- This topic was important to me because I wanted to know how the modern day prison system
came to be. I learned a lot about the developement of prisons and mental hospitals. The piece of
information that stuck out the most was that before the reform, men, women, and children could
be imprisoned together which seems crazy to think about.
Cole- Although many people view prisons and mental hospitals as being a filthy place filled with
criminals but the prison reform movement allowed the prisons and hospitals to be upgraded and not
even close to as brutal as before the Movement. A lot of money is spent into the livelihood of the
prisons and mental hospitals to change the lives of the people entering them and although it is
thought of a bad place, it is filled with the hopes and dreams of thousands.
Aundre-The prison reform was a huge stepping stone in the development of penitentiaries. If the
prison reform didn’t happen then prisons right now could be very brutal with no rights for the
inmates. The Prison Reform successfully separated women, men and children from going to prison
together, that could have been really dangerous for everyone in prison. I think the Prison Reform
was very important part of U.S history.
Bibliography
http://www.ushistory.org/us/26d.asp- this cite was very helpful in finding the important people including Dorothea
Dix and Loius Dwight. Also, it gave a brief overview of the order of events and was a good starting place for research.
The source appears credible because it is a .org owned by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia.
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/prison-reforms-in-the-1800s- this source was used as a chronological
timeline for the events and breakthroughs of the reform in the eary-mid 1800’s. However, this was not a main source of
information because it mostly just provided dates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_prison_systems- this cite provided tons of information
about prison reforms and asylums for the mentally ill. Although it is a wiki-page, all the information we gathered was
crosschecked with other sources just to make sure. The bibliography at the bottom of the page also directed us to other
useful sources such as the next one on this list.
Christianson, Scott (1998), With Liberty for Some: 500 years of Imprisonment in America, Boston. This
was an interesting source and it was very useful for the related historical events slide. Scott Christenson is a well
respected journalist, historian, and human rights advocate which makes this a pretty credible source I think.